Grumpier with age?

[waixingren]

My oldest girl is 8 years old. Her name is Pepita. Her cage mate for the last 5 years is Lizzie who is 6 years old. Lately Pepita has been a lot more aggressive. She's been booting lizzie out of the main hide and has even given her a few strong bites. Strong enough to break the skin. Lizzie is still the dominant feeder and is 10 grams heavier. They live in a 40g tank but if it continues I will be separating them.

Have any of you noticed increased aggression with age?

(Don't you hate stories of faces you don't know? Me too so I attached a picture. Pepita on the left, Lizzie on the right)

 

[sausage]

awww its such a shame as they have been friends for so long
my oldist ones are three so havnt yet seen this. but it is very clear that the females to have some kind of hierarchy for best sleeping places ect.. they do some times test each others dominance though

 

[Dog Shrink]

How is your tank set up? How long is a 40 gallon tank? What are the dimensions? Maybe we could come up with a different set up that would alleviate competition for key spaces. In that picture (which almost looks like a mirror image) they look like they're in a stand-off to me. Pepita staring hard at lizzie and lizzie looking away submissively. I would turn their hide holes away from eachother so they don't have to come face to face each time they're leaving their hides. Maybe this isn't NEW tension coming out because of old age, but maybe it's long term tension that's finally coming to a head...

 

[sausage]

i solved mine with multipull caves and hot spots but its the same with any animal and humands for that matter, if you live together there will be some conflict once in a while.